From February to May of 2013, one local youth service provider turned away at least 150 unaccompanied minor children due to lack of emergency shelter space, many of whom also had children of their own.

The reasons that people experiencing homelessness are tremendously medically vulnerable are both physical and psychological, the factors quite complex. But there is that solution to the equation: Housing as healthcare.

When I first read Cindy Adams' diatribe against Washington, D.C. (the "District of Crapola"), I just had to say, "Wait, what?" You see, the D.C. described by Adams little resembles the city I've called home for most of my life.

I urge every member of the D.C. Council to refresh your commitment to the District's children and families so that we can all turn the corner together and no one is left behind. Please set a goal of improving our entire city, not just the reputation of the council.

She was homeless, terrified and had nowhere left to turn -- and couldn't have been more than 14 years old. She'd never sought help or shelter before-- she'd never been homeless before. But she was lost.

Ours is a region of breathtaking wealth and heartbreaking poverty. While our region's economy has led to economic prosperity for many on the middle and higher rungs of the ladder, residents on the bottom are being left behind.

The real solution to chronic unemployment and exclusion from economic security is to constantly and creatively implement public policies and programs that chip away at the walls that poverty has created in our communities.

After September 11, who could dare speak of the need to reinvigorate the War on Poverty, what with the War on Terror consuming most of our fiscal and emotional resources? A decade later, the region remains divided, unconscionably so.